The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden is perhaps one of my favorite anti-war book series that I’ve ever read. For those that don’t know, the series is about seven Australian teenagers that go camping in the bush and when they return home, they find that another country has invaded their home. They then become guerilla fighters and try to fight to win back their homeland.

The books are incredible and are each titled exquisitely: “Tomorrow When the War Began”, “The Dead of Night”, “The Third Day, a Frost”, “Darkness, Be My Friend”, “Burning For Revenge”, “The Night is For Hunting” and “The Other Side of Dawn”. They are harrowing to say the least.

But the thing is that it has I think one of the saddest moments when it comes to growing up. Ellie talks about picking up a Barbie and trying to summon the magic of play that she had when she was a child. She just can’t do it. That magic is gone. It’s cut off from her.

I’ve read a fair amount of anti-war and tales about growing up but nothing has resonated with me like that. It’s the same as someone pointing out that there was a point when your parents put you down one day and they never picked you back up. Leaving childhood behind means that you’ll never be able to do some things again.

I’m childfree but I figure that this is partly why people have kids. To give them the things back that they can’t get. I always think about when I went to see the first Inside Out movie and wonder why I saw so many crying adults in there. I wondered if it was because they knew that there was going to be a time when they couldn’t make their kids happy. That their children would have to suffer pain. The inevitability of all of that.

If you haven’t read these books, I highly recommend them. Just be aware that they get very rough at parts. He doesn’t shy away from the realities of it.